Patent GB-665353-A (GB)
Title: Improvements relating to garment treating apparatus
IPC: D06F73/00
Filed: 1948-06-25
Abstract: 665,353. Cleaning garments. SHAW, J. C., and BLETTNER, H. E. June 25, 1948, No. 17188/48. Class 138 (i) [Also in Groups VIII, XIII and XXX] A garment treating apparatus includes a flexible porous bag for the supporting of garments to be treated and to the interior of which a treating fluid, e.g. steam or air, or both, can be admitted to expand the bag and flow through it and the garment thereon, and means extending longitudinally of the bag and disposed inside the bag for limiting expansion of certain parts of the bag while permitting limited ballooning effects between such parts. The bag 24, Fig. 1, is supported at its upper end by a vertical post 21 mounted in a casing 11 on a base 10, and its lower end 27, which includes surplus.material to allow ballooning, is secured'by a clamping ring 28. Air, exhausted from a motor-operated blower 17, heated in a device 14 and regulated in rate of flow by a hand lever 16, and/or steam from a nozzle 13, controlled by a pedal 20, are supplied to the bottom of the bag to inflate it and to treat a garment dressed thereon. The expansion of the bag is controllable, in order to suit different sizes of garments, through rods 29 which are enclosed in envelopes 30 stitched to the interior of the bag. The bag is formed circumferentially and longitudinally between the envelopes with a series of ballooning corrugations 40, Fig. 6. The upper ends of the rods are pivotally connected to arms 31 on a sleeve 32 fixed to the post 21. The rods are provided near their lower ends with lugs 33 pivotally connected to the lower ends of links 34 pivotally connected at their upper ends to arms 35 on a sleeve 36 slidable on the post 21. The degree of expansion of the bag is determined by the position of the sleeve on the post 21 relative to the fixed sleeve 32. The sleeve 36 is connected to the lower end of a wire 41 whose upper end is wound and anchored on a pulley 43 (Fig. 5) rotatably mounted on a shaft 44 fixed in a casing 45 secured to the upper end of the post 21. A biassing coil spring 46 is secured at one end to the pulley and at its other end to the stationary cover 52 of the casing. This spring tends to turn the pulley in a direction to wind-up the wire 41 and collapse the bag. Rotatable with the pulley are a sleeve 47 and a handle 48 which has a pointer arm 49 with a projecting pin 50 engageable in any one of a series of holes 51 in the cover 52. The pulley, sleeve and handle are slidable as a unit, as well as rotatable on the shaft 44. The shaft 44 supports at its outer end a freely rotatable knob 53. It will be seen that when the pin 50 is engaged in a hole 51 the pulley and thus wire 41 and sleeve 36 are locked. To alter the degree of expansion of the bag the operator applies the palm of his hand to the knob 53 and with his fingers pulls out the handle 48 to release the pin 50. As air or steam under pressure are supplied to the interior of the bag the bag expands and causes the pulley 43, sleeve 47 and handle to rotate against the action of the spring 46. The pointer 49 travels over a scale on the cover 52 indicating the different degrees of expansion. The handle 48 is then released to allow the pin 50 to engage in a selected hole 51. After a garment has been treated and the air and steam supplies cut off the operator again pulls out the handle 48. The bag is then collapsed either by the effort of the operator or by the spring 46. In another embodiment the wire is replaced by a tension spring adjustably connected at one end to a lug on the upper part of the post 21, and at the other end to the sleeve 36.